Tag Archives: news

Time for the Supremes to Decide ‘Net Neutrality’

The FCC’s dramatic 2015 pivot on Internet regulation sought to envelope advanced broadband networks in the shroud of telephone company rules rolled out in the Mann Elkins Act of 1910. These historic common carriage “Title II” regulations – originally the province of the Interstate Commerce Commission, long ago antiquated and finally abolished in 1995 — were cited as exemplars by the Commission in last year’s Open Internet Order.

Wheeler: Net May Be at Regulatory Inflection Point
Asks Whether ‘Terminating Monopolies’ Hold Key To Letting Startups Scale Up

10/02/2014
By John Eggerton

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has at least raised the possibility that the Internet economy is at an “inflection point” at which the government needs to step in to insure the continuing ability of innovative startups to scale up at the pace of high-speed broadband.

Thomas Hazlett was interviewed by Virginia Business Magazine in an article by Richard Foster analyzing the Netflix/Comcast deal and the ramifications for the so called “open internet.” Critics have said the the deal will lead to an end to the era of open internet and will lead to higher costs for consumers as well as discrimination between websites. Dr. Hazlett argues that the change will be much less dramatic because the notion of an open internet is a mischaracterization of how the internet has always operated. In fact, this discrimination between different types of network traffic is beneficial to consumers, who value speed in services such as voice-over-internet more highly than in email.